The test of Perseus Jackson
by PercyJacksonAustyle
Summary: Percy's day started off great, then through reasons explained later, he was transported to a room, no hope of escape. Can he pass this madman's tests, or will he just end up another red spot on the wall? (Is a lot better than it sounds, read first chapter and comment, R&R is very welcomed. Enjoy! Rated T because paranoia.)
1. Chapter 1

The test of Perseus Jackson

Percy PoV

I had just come from the coffee shop with Annabeth. We'd been having a great time in New Rome. After the giants and Gaia had finally been beaten, we could finally get on with our lives. Annabeth had promised to hear me out today as we walked the marble streets of the enormous city, Annabeth giving little facts about the architecture.

I wasn't really listening, I always just sort of tuned out when she started to go on and on about how old the building were and how they were molded after the greatest Roman building of all time. I kind of understood where she was coming from; after all we'd been to Rome together to fight two giants, Otis and Ephialtes. But I just couldn't help it, when she got like that, my eyes pretty much glazed over.

I just walked with her, holding hands, and looking at her with a dreamy smile. Her blond hair caught the light perfectly, shining in the sun as we made our way to the center of New Rome, the Forum. She smiled as she looked at the marvelous buildings, probably thinking _'Hey, I should definitely have done that, or Maybe when we get back to Camp Half-Blood I could…'_ something like that.

She was always thinking about improving things, and I had a secret fear that maybe she had some plan to give me a makeover in my sleep or something, just to shake things up a little.

We finally reached the Forum. It was around midday, and the sun was bright in the sky, blistering heat baking the open shops that littered the square around the Forum. Smart people would be going inside right now to relax and just watch T.V. or something. But me, being super smart, had decided to stay the rest of the day to ask Annabeth my question.

She didn't know what I wanted to ask yet; she would probably be thinking that I'd just wanted to bring her out here to show her New Rome like I'd originally planned after the _Argo ll _had landed near the Senate house before we'd gone on the quest to search for the Mark of Athena. Which of course I still wanted to do with her. But today, I had another reason for bringing Annabeth out in the heat. I had to talk with her in private for once. And I had a sneaking suspicion Leo had rigged some kind of machine to follow them around to eavesdrop. He'd probably call everyone in a little room with like a dozen T.V.'s to just make fun of us as if to say _'Ya, I've got this on cable, anyone interested in a juicy Demi-god Romanic comedy?'_

I wasn't going to take the chance. I hadn't even realized Annabeth was tugging my hand. I'd stopped in the middle of the road. _Gods I was so dense when I started to think_, I thought to myself. I started moving again.

"You ok Seaweed brain?" Annabeth asked me, giving me a little worried look. I must have been scowling or something, so I put on a smile for her.

"Why wouldn't I be, I'm walking the streets with my girlfriend in one of the greatest cities in the world?" I told her, taking my free hand and rubbing the back of my head embarrassed. I was secretly a little nervous about what I wanted to ask her, but I had to follow through, I'd waited too long to finally pop the question.

She didn't seem convinced, but squeezed my hand a little tighter and smiled at me with those big her stormy gray eyes of hers. She really knew how to make a guy feel better didn't she.

"Ok, but hurry up, we'll roast if we wait too long in this heat, and I'm not kissing you if you start to smell like fried tuna." She told me matter-o-factly, as we nearly marched into the Forum.

If you'd seen the Forum, you would probably propose to your girlfriends there to. To me it looked more like a church than any other building. Nobody seemed to be there at the moment, which was fine by me; I needed her to myself right now.

It had dazzling Mosaics on every wall, the light shining into them, making them literally glow with beauty. The floor was studded with tiles so white; it looked like someone was forced to scrub them with tooth brushes from those icy white smile commercials. And knowing Reyna, I probably was right. There were benches lining up to a small arch in the middle of the Forum, facing towards it like a great ceremonies was taking place right now, and the benches were the guests.

We walked to the edge near a balcony at the very end of the Forum, overlooking the countryside of San Francisco. If I squinted really hard, I could just make out the golden gate bridge in the distance, surrounded by fog.

"So Seaweed brain, what were you thinking about back there?" I heard Annabeth's voice jolt me back to reality. I must've blushed, because she was smiling at me all-knowingly like she always did when she knew I had something on my mind.

"I was just…um…" I tried to get the words out. I'd fought monsters, giants, gods and goddesses, but what really got me speechless was the idea of actually asking my girlfriend to marry me. Go figure. She just rolled her eyes at me.

"Come on Percy, its ok, you can tell me." She said, still smiling at me like she already knew what I was thinking, making me even more sure that I had to go through with it. I toke a deep breath, and looked her straight in the eye, taking both her hands in mine.

"Annabeth I…" I never got to finish. At that moment, my vision went totally black, I felt the floor crack under my feet, myself and Annabeth falling down what felt like an endless chasm, and believe me, I speak from experience. All I could do was hold onto Annabeth's hands, and pull her closer to me, trying and muffle our screams as we continued to descend. I felt that if there was a bottom to this thing, then once we'd hit it, we'd become the world's biggest Demi-god pancake.

But I don't remember hitting the bottom. The next thing I knew, Annabeth was gone, and I was standing in a circular chamber. The color of the walls was pure obsidian, with torches lining it, blazing so red, it looked strongly like blood. That's when I heard it. Imagine a laugh that could cut through solid rock, so blood curtailing that it would make Coach Hedge cry for his mommy goat. You still wouldn't have anything close to the sound that was basically emitting from the walls of the chamber. A robbed figure appeared out of the gloom, hood covering its face. The walls fell silent.

The figure regarded me, then turned in an about face, no longer facing me, but heading to a door that had materialized against the walls of the chamber. It glowered gold like at any second it would turn as bright as the sun, and fry anything in its path. Basically, it was a door I never wanted to open.

"Hey, where am I, where's Annabeth, who are you?" I had about a bazillion questions to ask, but the figure did nothing but stop and stand in place, as if thinking _'Did this thing just talk to me?'_

"You are simply here Perseus Jackson…" The thing spoke a sort of accent, though I couldn't tell you from where. It spoke with no emotion, no hatred, no fear; it was absolutely scary just to be in the same room with it.

"As for your friend, well, she is being tested as we speak; you needn't concern yourself with her, for now you should fear for your own life Perseus." I couldn't prove it, but I would swear it was smiling under the hood as it finally turned and faced me again.

"As for me…I am your beginning, your middle, and your end, I hope you enjoy the tests I've set forth for you, and try not to get the place to messy, I would hate to have to clean you off the various walls that line my fortress so soon, have fun ." I could now tell that the accent was vaguely male, it had a deep reverberated sound to it, like many people were using him as a ventriloquists dummy, I hated those things. And with that he opened the golden door and disappeared behind it, me closing my eyes not able to look beyond the hot shine of the exit, leaving me with one thing on my mind.

The thought that when I got out of here, I was going to wring that guys little neck.

(Chapter one end.)

((Hey guys, thanks for reading, very much appreciated, wondering if I should do the next chapter or not, not asking for a review, but maybe a little idea flowing around in that head of yours to get the ball rolling, again, thanks for reading.R&R)) 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Annabeth PoV

I'd pretty much had it with being a Demi-god. Sure, there were perks. I'd met people like Percy, gone on quests to save the world, and even gotten to redesign Mount Olympus. But then there were the bad parts. Like falling down a hole in the ground when your boyfriend was trying to tell you something important.

We'd been having a great day so far. Traveling around the streets of New Rome. I'd grown to like the place, not as much as Camp Half-Blood of course, but certainly a lot better than before. The buildings themselves were just too marvelous to stay away from. I could tell Percy was preoccupied with something especially when he'd stopped in the street. But he just smiled at me and told me everything was ok, so I tried to believe him. Then, when he was trying to tell me something, we fall down a chasm on the balcony of the Forum.

We fell for what seemed like hours. Percy holding onto me as we basically gave our lungs a work out. It was like falling into Tartarus all over again.

By the time I'd finally landed, which I didn't remember doing, Percy was gone, and I was standing in the Parthenon where the Athenian Pantheons stood proudly in the center, holding Nike, the goddess of victory. But that wasn't right, I was in New Rome with Percy, I couldn't travel to Greece through a hole in the ground.

I shook her head, sometimes being a Demi-god confused even me, but I'd never admit that out loud, especially to Percy, he'd never let me live it down.

Annabeth tried to get a handle on her surroundings. Nothing seemed new since my last visit. The walk ways were still studded white, gleaming in the sun, reflecting light all over the place. Fountains darted through the area, showering bright blue water 30 feet in the air, and then collapsing back into the fountain to repeat the cycle. A temple to my mother Athena was placed directly behind the statue, sprouting wickedly high out of the ground as if to say _'I'm the biggest thing around, come look at me.' _

But what really surprised her was the hooded figure standing under the statue, admiring it, and tapping its foot against the marble floor as if they were waiting for something.

Now, being a Demi-god, you learn to be suspicious of hooded figures standing out in the open, looking defenseless, turning into giant monster that wants to eat you for lunch. But Annabeth wasn't getting that vibe. They looked genuinely curious about the statue, looking up at it and taking in as much of it as they could. Annabeth knew the feeling. She saw it in herself when she looked at architecture. Those feelings that when you see something, you could have done it better yourself.

But this thing was looking at her mom with that look, and it really made her mad.

She stormed over to the figure; planning to give it a piece of her mind about looking at her mother that way, but it stopped her dead in her tracks with its voice.

"It's about time Annabeth Chase." It spoke to her.

She stopped. The voice had a thick accent, from where, she couldn't tell. It was raspy to, vaguely female, but Annabeth was sure of that much. The sound made her want to crawl under a rock and cower in the fetal position, but she didn't show it, after all, she was a child of Athena. She wouldn't let a voice drive her away. It sounded like a bunch of people were talking through it at once, like she had multiple personalities and they were all trying to speak at once.

"Why am I in the Parthenon, where's Percy, who are you?" Annabeth asked her, holding her ground, staring at the back of the figure. The figure just laughed.

"The Parthenon, eh, so that's where you see me, interesting." She told her, not even giving her a glance, still looking up at the statue.

"This place takes on the form a hero's most comfortable place." She said, shrugging as if this should be common knowledge and she was tired of explaining it.

"As for your boyfriend, ah yes, I just had a chat with him as well, testy isn't he, little annoying." She said, giving a loud sigh, still not turning around to meet her.

Her words drew across her extremely slowly like a blanket would to warm you up in the night. But it had the opposite effect on Annabeth. She felt like she'd been slapped in the face. The voice spoke with no clear emotion, but it clearly meant to infuriate her. And it was defiantly working.

"Why am I here, and who are you?"Annabeth repeated, trying really hard to get a grip on herself. This girl was clearly trying to get inside her head. She needed to keep calm to figure a way out of here…and find Percy.

"You're going to be tested, every Demi-god, sooner or later has to pass a series of tests to continue on in this world, prove you are truly of value to Olympus." The figure told her flatly. The figure started to approach the statue as if to touch it, but Annabeth's words stopped the person dead in their tracks.

"What do you mean prove my value, haven't I been through enough, Percy and I, we've fought-" She started, yelling at it to get its attention, but it just waved her off.

"I know all about your little quests with that boyfriend of yours, and to be honest, I was fairly impressed." She told her, which really shocked her. A captor had never really given her praise before. Other than maybe that time on Circes island, but she was just trying to get Annabeth to become a sorceress.

This girl sounded strangely sincere. She turned, still hooded, but her face revealed just enough so that Annabeth could see her mouth in a pointed grin.

"But that is not the point, if you are to be a true hero, your heart and mind must be totally in sink, in balance if you must." Annabeth could see an even wider smirk form under the hood, as if she'd just made a really clever joke.

"As for I, well, let's just say that I have monitored your life, and have decided to final even the playing field for you and your little Demi-god brethren. This place with test your strengths, your fears, your loves, and most important of all, that smart head of yours. So don't die too much, I told Jackson the same thing, but he didn't seem to take me seriously, I know you won't make the same mistake. After all, you never disappoint Annabeth." The figure told her, turning back to the statue, which had now started to glow with a purple aura, but that wasn't right either, the Athenian Pantheonses aura was gold and warm. Now it only felt cold, and dark, like some pits she'd fallen into recently.

"Good luck Annabeth Chase." The figure told her, smiling again.

"The gods know you'll need it." And with that, the figure was absorbed into the statue, which started to shake violently. The whole Parthenon was erupting in cracks, literally falling apart at the seams. Under Annabeth's feet a new hole swallowed her, taking her even further into the ground. Her screams were drowned out by laughing. The figures voice echoed off the dark walls of the cave she was descending, bouncing off Annabeth like sonar as she continued to fall down an impossibly dark expanse of tunnel.

(End of chapter 2.)


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